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White House COVID Expert: Virus Widespread in US Rural, Urban Areas

VOA News

   White House coronavirus experts said Sunday the outbreak has hit a new
   phase, becoming "extraordinarily widespread" in rural areas as well as
   big cities.
   "To everybody who lives in a rural area: You are not immune or
   protected from this virus," Dr. Deborah Birx, White House task force
   coordinator, said on CNN Sunday.
   She said the virus in August is not what it looked like in March and
   April, when only large cities and heavily populated states were
   reporting cases.
   Birx stressed the importance of wearing masks indoors if the elderly or
   those with underlying health conditions are in the house.
   A senior official at the Department of Health and Human Services,
   Admiral Brett Giroir, appeared on NBC's Meet the Press. He also talked
   about the importance of wearing masks and avoiding crowds.
   "That's why we're going to all the states, we're on local radio, we
   give specific instructions to every governor by county, what they need
   to do when we start -- when those counties start tipping yellow,
   because that's the time when you have to stamp it down," he said.
   About the same time that Birx was on CNN, Democratic Speaker of the
   House Nancy Pelosi was on ABC television accusing Birx of helping
   President Donald Trump spread disinformation about COVID-19.
   Pelosi was responding to a question about a Politico article where she
   reportedly said the Trump administration is in "horrible hands" in part
   because of Birx.
   "I think the president is spreading disinformation about the virus, and
   she's his appointee," Pelosi said on ABC's "This Week." "I don't have
   confidence, no."
   Trump continues to insist that the reason the United States has the
   highest number of COVID cases in the world -- 4.6 million, according to
   Johns Hopkins University data -- is because the U.S. does more testing
   than anyone else.
   He tweeted Sunday that the top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr.
   Anthony Fauci, was wrong when he said last week that Europe's relative
   success in fighting the virus is because it shut down twice as many
   businesses as the U.S. did.
   "Wrong!" Trump tweeted. "We have more cases because we have tested far
   more than any other country, 60,000,000. If we tested less, there would
   be less cases. How did Italy, France & Spain do? Now Europe sadly has
   flare ups. Most of our governors worked hard & smart. We will come back
   STRONG!" Mr. Trump wrote.

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